An artificial heart for newborns and children, which can be controlled through a mobile application, was built by a group of students from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Gr.T.Popa Iasi, who will represent Romania in the final of the competition World HeartHackathon 2024 in Japan.
Among the 38 students who form the UMF Iasi MAVIS Artificial Heart team, most of them from the Faculty of Medical Bioengineering, three will go to the final in Japan, which will take place on November 12.
Students from the MAVIS Technology Transfer and Innovation Center will compete alongside nine other elite teams from the United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Thailand and Sweden.
"It is a new competition that we are pleased to participate in. A UMF team will participate with an artificial heart to help develop an artificial heart project. My colleagues have worked hard over the last year, day in and day out, in addition to classes from the faculty. We are happy to support them. We are also aware that it is a very difficult competition because students come from universities. renowned from all over the world", said the coordinator of the Center for Innovation and Technological Transfer MAVIS, prof. university Dr. John. Nistor
The MAVIS student team stood out last year by winning "The most advanced design" award, and this year with a new project - a miniaturized artificial heart intended for pediatric patients, controlled by a mobile application.
"It is probably the smallest artificial heart in the world. As far as we know, from the specialized literature, it is the smallest artificial heart developed so far. But we will see in Japan what projects the other teams come up with. This artificial heart was designed for a necessary flow for a newborn, but it can increase this capacity. Another innovation we bring is the elimination of two of the three external components. We have only one component, a smart, wireless battery that transmits energy wirelessly. Control over the device is made from an application on the mobile phone, the patient can view all the parameters, which is the charge level of the batteries, but also the speed of the pump and the heart rate. There is also an emergency button. Of course, we will also develop an interface for the doctor so that only he can access the initial settings", explained Alexandru Plesoianu, MAVIS team coordinator.
Cardiologists say that ventricular assist devices, whether they are short-term devices or an artificial heart, are very important elements that can save lives.
"Most cardiovascular diseases end up with heart failure, a very severe disease, with an evolution that is most of the time fatal, in which the quality of life is very, very low. Currently in Romania, there are very few ventricular assist devices small, there are very few medical centers that have the necessary experience and expertise. These devices are very expensive and unavailable to an ordinary cardiac patient," said Dr. Carmen Plesoianu, primary cardiologist at the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Iasi.
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